Bs meter - yes or no?

real quick background: im hypoglycemic and on hydrocortisone to help bring my bs levels up. Its helping but im still having a lot of lows (3-5 episodes a day) and recently it seems like they are happening without the normal warning signs and also they are worse then before. I dont have a meter and was wondering if that would help and i should try that so I would know when my bs is dropping before it gets too low without me realizing.

My biggest problem right now is band camp and the heat. it seems like it drops my blood sugar sooo much faster. Also im having much more episodes (around 2 a day!!!) of bad hypoglycemia and it happend much faster than normal…like i didnt get the normal warning signs…i think im gonna talk to my mom (AGAIN) about getting me a bs meter…i just think i could use that to tell me if my bs is dropping so i could fix it before i get too low. its kinda a scary thing (as im sure u know) cuz like the other day, I maybe got a little hungry but i ignored it and then got in the shower. well soon after my bs dropped a ton w/out me realizing and i fell over, almost passed out…I was able to get myself downstairs and get sugar in me, but its the fast and unpredictable dropping of blood sugar that is happening more often.

My theory is if i can check if lets say at 930 and then 11 or somethin and then also like 2 or just before that could tell me when i start getting low…idk. Ill eat breakfast and then be out the door at 7. ill have a snack round 1030 or just after, but thats usually to fix low bs. and sometimes like i said it drops unexpectanly and really low…dont know why (maybe the heat or using a lot of energy cuz of band camp???) but anyways, so if im feeling really low ill have a juice with the snack…but then ill have lunch just before 12, and ill be hungry around 1 or just after…i have a snack on my way home (usually pb crackers and juice again) becuz im low again - and didnt relaize i was getting low cuz i didnt get the symptoms…

ok so it just seems as if my warning symptoms of low bs are going bye byes since band camps started (is this just the heat/using too much energy and not enough food ( even though im eating a ton) and will the meter help (how should i go about that)

27 replies

no, but she added another med to what im already taking(don't remember what its called, but its to help me gain weight-cuz thall help stabalize my bs). im doin a lot better now, esp since im not in the heat from 730 to 3 everyday. im on a good schedule now at school, and doin pretty well. def taking my meds at different times (such as right as i get up) helped a ton!!!! so well see.

That is good to hear! I am glad that you have figured out what works for you! I had one of my lowest lows since getting my meter on Saturday. I also experienced what seemed to be "skipped symptoms". I was really busy and didn't realize what was going on until I actually stopped for a minute. Then I had to get OJ so that I could start the climb up. I was in rough shape for the rest of the day. Seems like when I have a bad low I am up and down for at least 24 hours.

Hello,I'll throw my 2¢ in. Carry a few pieces of hard candy with you for emergencies. I finally picked up some glucose tabs (Doctor recomended) for those low dizzy spells. But, talk to the doc fist. If you aren't getting the help you need, get a 2nd opinion. Good luck and better health.Guardian stone.

ya sometimes i do the candy, but usually i just do pb crackers and a juice. it helps and holds me over for bout a hour until then i have to eat again. but were gonna try to get a meter from the doc…again…when we go in about a week.

Katie17, I am also a hypoglycemic. I didn't know where my numbers were. I received a free meter from onetouch. The only problem with that meter is that the test strips are horribly expensive if you don't have a prescription for them. I bought a meter at Walmart for $9.00 and the test strips are $9.00 for 25. Not too bad. My doctor told me that I didn't need a meter either. I think it is a good tool to have. I check before I eat. I would normally say check it 2 hours after but then its time to eat again. :-) I have found that when I do eat too many carbs, my levels spike and then I know that the low is going to be bad. I hope that your doctor gets you a meter!Valerie

yes yes yes yes!!!!!!!!! thats exactly how i feel…and my doc appt is on the first of sept and were gonna ask for a meter and get a perscription so we can get the strips for less cuz i know how expensve they are trust me haha.

ya your last few sentences is exactly what i have experience everyday. One thing i struggle w is nights and dropping really low. It doesnt matter what I eat ill still be pretty low in the morning. Also what are your numbers when you get low such as:some of the first signs I get (when I get signs) are hunger, a little light headed…what would your bs be here.Then when I start to drop more ill be more light headed and cant think straight, more nauseus: what would your bs number be here.And then obviously when it drops suddendly without me realizing it and i NEED juice within 5 min cuz its soo low: what would your number be here.

I will look them up for you. I havent had my meter too long (about a week). I typically only get to the light headed and cant think straight symptoms and I fix it. I have only had one instance where it dropped beyond that, and it was before I had my meter so I don't know what my numbers were.

A suggestion for the morning lows would be the glucose tablets that you can buy at the store. Put them beside your bed and use them before you get up.

ok thanks, i can fix the symptoms when i get up (Depending on how bad, ill either eat or have juice if im real low). but its getting Through the night that im having trouble with, cuz i drop sooo much at night.

I get the lightheaded all the time, like anywhere from 4 to prob 10 or more times a day. ITs really and i mean really bad maybe once every two days. or ill have a bad low where itll drop suddenldy and suprise me or itll drop really fast. Those happen pretty much every day sometimes every two days. Typically i need one juice a day. And i only need juice when i drop real low. Sometimes ill need two juices a day or three and others ill be able to go without one. Also other times, and this is maybe once a week itll be so bad that i cant think, cant eat, and am shaking and barely have enough "mind" to tell my self to drink the juice.

I used to always get the cant think straight symptoms and lightheaded symptoms but more recently (cuz of the heat i think) ive been skipping over those symptoms and goin straight for the more serious "lower symptoms". this is what scares me, and why i want a meter. :(

A blood glucose meter has nothing to do with your blood sugar going up or down. A blood glucose meter only gives you the number reading of where your sugar level is in that moment. It gives you an on the spot number so you can judge what you need to do. So whether the number is very high or very low, you can make the necessary adjustments to treat yourself accordingly.

ya i know thats why I dont understand the docs reasoning for me not to have one…she said something about the adrenaline will bring it back up, but the only thing thatll bring it back up is food and usually theres a juice involveed when its really low.

This is how it was explained to me. When you eat, it causes your body to create adrenaline. The adrenaline does cause your bs to go up. The reason that it drops is because your pancrease creates insulin and with hypoglycemia it creates too much. The biggest problem with this is that once the insulin is done doing what it is suppose to do with the food processing it then starts working on the bs bringing the numbers down. If I am incorrect, please someone tell me as this is what I was told.

well i was told, and have read a ton of things that say that when u eat (depending on what you eat) your blood sugar will go up (how high depends on what you eat). Insulin is produced and in us, too much is produced and instead of the glucose and insulin working correctly, it doesnt, so it drops us too much. In a normal person, they will eat and the bs will go up and then over the next few hours fall to a normal place and just stay at that level for awile. With us, it keeps falling till its too low to be normal. Thats where the symptoms come in.

here are my typcial low symptoms in order:first ill get hungry or a little lightheadedthen ill get more lightheaded and cant really think straightthen im not thinking at all, and shaking sometimes, not walking straight, cant pay attention to a convosation, totally out of itthen im still awake but just barely, or ill pass out and then come back CAN U PLEASE GIVE ME SOME GENERAL NUMBERS OF WHAT MY BS MIGHT BE WHEN IM HAVING THE ABOVE SYMTPOMS. im just trying to compare myself to others and see if my bs is really actually low, and how low, and how I need to treat it depending on how low it gets.

Ok, I can give you some of the numbers that I have seen for me… but remember that everyone is different: little hungry/light headed 85-90not thinking straight a little shakey 75-80running into walls (not walking straight)/concentration is off/really shakey 60-70

That is as low as I have been since I got my meter. I know it has gone lower but I don't know what the numbers are.

Also within the last month or so it seems like no matter what I eat before bed, I wake up with low bs levels. (varying in severity). I usually do a apple and pb plus milk. Anything to do about this??

Im just having trouble preventing low bs levels. I know how to treat them and do fine with that, its just trying to get ahead of my body and know when they will start dropping so i can fix them before they drop. that why i thought bout the meter.